Kiwi mountaineer Mark Inglis reached the summit of Mount Everest last night to become the first double-amputee to conquer the world's highest peak.

Inglis, who lost both his legs below the knee in 1982 after being trapped in an ice cave on Mount Cook for 14 days, reached the 8850m summit after a gruelling 40 days on Everest.

The 47-year-old Paralympics cycling silver medallist and his team of about 16 New Zealand climbers and Tibetan sherpas set out from Tibet on March 25 and had aimed to reached Everest's summit by the end of this month.

Despite her husband having to use oxygen when moving in the past few days, the team had acclimatised quickly and did not have to return to base camp before attempting the summit, as most climbers would.

Inglis headed for the summit with the best wishes of Everest's first conqueror, Sir Edmund Hillary, who said earlier that he wished the climber the best of luck.

Inglis has been aiming for Everest for more than 20 years.

Inglis said on his website that it was from the top of Cho Oyu, in the Himalayas, that he realised Everest would be his next goal.

Since 1982, Inglis has been working with organisations to encourage others with disabilities to pursue their dreams

EDITED BY SOCIALCLIMBER: Mark Inglis is associated with The Cambodia Trust and is using this venture to raise funds it’s Kompong Chnnang Limb Centre. Discovery Channel has employed Tigress Productions to film Inglis attempt.

New Zealander Mark Inglis, who became the first double amputee to reach the mountain’s summit on prosthetic legs, told Television New Zealand that his party stopped during its May 15 summit push and found Sharp close to death.

A member of the party tried to give Sharp oxygen, and sent out a radio distress call before continuing to the summit, he said.

Several parties reported seeing Sharp in varying states of health and working on his oxygen equipment on the day of his death.

Inglis, who was due to arrive back in New Zealand on Thursday, said Sharp had no oxygen when he was found. He said there was virtually no hope that Sharp could have been carried to safety from his position about 1,000 feet short of the 29,035-foot summit, inside the low-oxygen “death zone” of the mountain straddling the Nepal-China border.

... there are obviously a lot of assholes in this sport. i don't buy into this 'no hope' crap at all.

Colkurtz, I agree, I have always found that attitude appalling. When I was doing technical diving one principal was (and still is) that any team member could call (off) the dive for any reason- no debate, the wreck or cave would still be there and another dive could be planned. We also dove together for years and knew each other’s limits and strengths. However, no one would ever bring some minimally trained unqualified diver on to a technical site even if they had $60,000. (This is NOT a comment on David Sharpe’s skills or lack of – I have no knowledge of them. However, we have all read of minimally skilled climbers dying on mountains where they should not have been climbing.)

the media has put words into the mouths of several people who are not directly involved with this such as Ed Hillary. The media has also only picked the words they want out of what Inglis has said about it. It really annoys me that non-climbers especially can give critism about it when they only time they see ice or snow is in the freezer or on the ski fields.

Inglis and Sharpes family have both said that they tried to give O2 to sharpe but it had no effect so really why burden the team with carring essentially a body out of the mountains and possibly risking the lives of your team.

the way i see it Inglis could have tryed to help but either way sharpe was likely to die so Inglis did the right thing. this whole issue has been blown out of proportion by the media. had you or i been up there on just a normal expedition we may have had a 3 line paragrapgh on the back page of the paper and not even made the news

Six other climbers have died on Everest this season and I have not heard a thing about any of those incidents. We know about this one only because Inglis was making headlines. The fact is, these days a dying climber on Everest is no longer news.

Also, Sharp was said to have been in trouble for some time. Dozens of other climbers passed Sharp before Inglis and co found him. No one goes on that mountain without knowing there is a high potential for death. The prevailing attitude among high altitude climbers is "survival of the fittest", It has been for some time. David Sharp would have been well aware of that.

We can be as outraged as we like about who dies and how on Mt. Everest but every climber has a choice not to climb and for the most part, every climber who chooses to climb accepts he is in charge of his future for the duration of that climb.

Double amputee climber and Everest conqueror flew back to New Zealand today into a storm of controversy over dying British climber David Sharp.

Inglis was greeted by supporters at Auckland Airport before flying on to Christchurch.

He showed waiting media his frost-bitten fingers and artificial legs.

Inglis became the first double amputee last week to scale Mt Everest, the world's highest mountain. But on the way up he was one of 40 climbers to pass the Sharp about 300 meters from the summit.

Inglis said his team tried to help Sharp but he was so near death there was nothing they could do for him.

He could not speak, his limbs were almost frozen solid and the only sign of life was slight movement in his eyes.

The decision from the Inglis team not to abandon their climb drew criticism from Sir Edmund Hillary, who with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first men to reach the summit of Mt Everest in May, 1953.

He said he was "gutted" at Sir Edmund's criticism but said he welcomed the debate.

Inglis was due at Christchurch Hospital today and was expected to lose the end of the ring finger on his right hand. He returned from the mountain with the tips of several fingers black with frostbite.

"What are the responses you are getting from climbers?" asked a NZ radio reporter ExWeb today. "There are three categories," we said. "The veteran climbers are outraged, the commercial expedition leaders are silent, and the Everest climbers are confused."

Thanks to media and a few brave individuals, the deaths of Everest climbers such as David Sharp and Vitor Negrete have not been in vain. Everest is currently doing what its ultimate purpose is: Not to give us a trophy summit, but to put a mirror before our face. "Who are we" is the ultimate question that gets an answer on Mount Everest.

Double treachery - death and silence

The world is outraged at a double-amputee who used his carbon legs to step over a dying man to reach the summit of Everest. A story hardly gets better than that. But it's easy to forget that Mark Inglis was the only one among 40 climbers who spoke up; the rest - the ones with both legs intact - remain silent. ( bold italics by socialclimber)

Many years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a simple message to the world: "Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak."

They were not the charity climbers

Those who spoke up on Everest were not the healthy climbers, they were not the responsible commercial guides, they were not the authorities in charge of order, and they were not the charity climbs.

They were a man without legs; and one simple climber, Vitor from Brazil, whose last desperate dispatch revealed thefts on the mountain and his climbing buddy's death. And then there was a third word; arriving from commercial guide Jamie McGuiness.

"Had it not been for Jamie..."

Anne Parmenter dispatched yesterday.

“Our sister expedition 'The Peace Project,' summited on the 18th but have had an almost 36 hour rescue effort for one of the members. With the support of 10 of our Sherpa's and at least 8 Sherpas from the Peace Project, the member was carried in a litter all the way from the North Col. If it hadn't have been for the efforts of Jamie McGuinness and two Sherpas who managed to walk the member all the way from the summit of Mount Everest, this person would not have survived.”

Only hours before, we had published the details about David Sharp, and that same morning an email from Jamie arrived. The subject:

"Pls add to your story."

The Sherpa heroes

Here's Jamie's testimony of the nights David and Vitor died:

"Dawa from Arun Treks also gave oxygen to David and tried to help him move, repeatedly, for perhaps an hour. But he could not get David to stand alone or even stand resting on his shoulders, and crying, Dawa had to leave him too. Even with two Sherpas it was not going to be possible to get David down the tricky sections below."

"Dawa, who did not summit because of giving his oxygen to David, told this to me less than 24 hours later when I met him on the fixed ropes. He was close to tears even then."

"At the time I thought the climber may be David Sharp, who had climbed with me twice, but it was only when I was on the way to the summit I had this confirmed when we passed him. A very sad moment. He was dead by then (18 May)."

"David was far too sensible to die"

"I will remember David as a strong and independent climber, for example on Cho Oyu, rather than pull on old ropes, he free-climbed a difficult section. We spent a glorious half hour eating lunch on top."

"Later when I was working as a Sherpa for the Team David was on he turned back around the Second Step with minor frostbite developing on his face. Little did he realize until later he had frostbitten feet from using plastic mountaineering boots. This time he was wearing the latest boots and was climbing with oxygen, apparently. He was strong at altitude, and I thought far too sensible to die."

"David was clean, easy company and a very likeable chap, I will miss him. I have a feeling that his personal wish may be to stay there and frighten-inspect every climber that goes by, although for the moment his face is covered by a classic Berghaus pack."

"Jamie McGuinness"

"Vitor motioned he was OK"

The Everest Peace Project team summitted the same day as Vitor (18 May). Jamie was at the back shepherding a climber along and they leapfrogged Vitor a few times; he seemed to be moving strongly for a no O2 ascent, says Jamie.

The team summitted ahead of Vitor but because of dramas with their climber Vitor caught up and passed them on the Second Step, "I waved him Though ahead of me so as not to slow him down. He seemed to be having an issue with his water bottle. Later we passed him, he was obviously tired but still seemed to be doing OK. He knew that he could ask us for help, I had motioned that. He motioned he was OK."

"It was just on dark and he was perhaps 200m behind us when a Sherpa went up fast to help him. We, with our tents 60m away on a windy night, knew nothing of the troubles of the night."